The Songbird and the Heart of Stone

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Parts 6-7

Character Analysis

Themes

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Important Quotes

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Background

Author Context: Carissa Broadbent

Carissa Broadbent is an epic fantasy and romantasy author who lives in Rhode Island. Before becoming an author, Broadbent was a graphic designer, and she uses these skills for the interior design in all her books. She later transitioned into cybersecurity marketing, which became her day job as she pursued independent publishing for her novels.

Broadbent began her writing career by publishing serially on blogs. Her first published works were The Valtain Preludes duology consisting of A Palace Fractured and A Crown in Shadows, self-published in 2017.

Following her original duology, Broadbent wrote The War of Lost Hearts trilogy, consisting of Daughter of No Worlds (2020), Children of Fallen Gods (2021), and Mother of Death and Dawn (2022). Daughter of No Worlds, written in 2018, was the first novel Broadbent felt proud of. It was in the process of writing The War of Lost Hearts series that Broadbent invested more time into writing and developed the marketing skills she’d use to promote her self-published novels.

After self-publishing The Serpent and the Wings of Night—the first installment in the Crowns of Nyaxia series—in 2022, Broadbent became a seemingly overnight success. Her novel gained massive traction on Amazon and BookTok, launching her into the public eye and placing her on the radar of traditional publishing scouts. The series was quickly picked up by Bramble, a romantic imprint of Tor Books, and traditionally published beginning in 2023.

Broadbent’s novels include epic fantasy, enemies-to-lovers tropes, and slow-burn relationships. The world and atmosphere of the Crowns of Nyaxia series in particular was inspired by Broadbent’s love for the Netflix animated series Castlevania.

Series Context: Crowns of Nyaxia

Crowns of Nyaxia is a planned six-book series containing three interconnected duologies. The first duology, titled the Nightborn Duet, consists of The Serpent and the Wings of Night and The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King. The duology alternates between the perspectives of Oraya—a half-human girl raised by the Nightborn King, Vincent—and Raihn—a formerly enslaved mortal-turned-vampire who usurps the House of Night and replaces Vincent as its king.

Mische is a side character throughout the Nightborn Duet. Her backstory is vaguely described throughout the duology, introducing her as a once-human girl blessed with fire magic by the sun god Atroxus but who fell out of his favor when an anonymous Shadowborn Prince of the House of Shadow turned her into a vampire. When she survived the grueling transformation, she befriended Raihn, who looked after her like a sister. Over the course of the duology, Mische becomes friends with Oraya, and from Oraya’s perspective, readers become aware of Mische’s struggle to accept her vampire nature and, most devastating, the loss of the sun god’s blessing.

In the second installment, The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King, Raihn and Oraya’s story comes to its conclusion, but the series is left on a cliffhanger when Mische kills the Shadowborn Prince who turned her and flees the House of Night.

The third installment, The Songbird and the Heart of Stone, transitions into the second duology of the Crowns of Nyaxia series—the Shadowborn Duet. The novel follows Mische in the aftermath of this treasonous act against the Shadowborn house, as she travels to the Underworld with the sole remaining Shadowborn prince, Asar, on a quest to resurrect the god of Death, Alarus. However, Mische also grapples with the possibility of redeeming herself and reclaiming her sun god’s love when he tasks her with killing Alarus permanently once resurrected.

The third duology, the Bloodborn Duet, will follow the final vampire house—the House of Blood. In the first duology, it is revealed that the Bloodborn vampires suffer from a devastating curse given to them by the goddess Nyaxia. Yet in The Songbird and the Heart of Stone, it’s also revealed that the House of Blood has conquered a human nation, hinting at more conflict to come in the series.